ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 explores the relationship between the melancholic sublime and 21st century art. Many commentators have noted the artistic ‘qualities’ of the terrorist act, most controversially Karlheinz Stockhausen and Damien Hirst but also critics such as Baudrillard who described the 9/11 attacks as elevating the Twin Towers to the eighth wonder of the world or Žižek who observed that the terrorists committed the act primarily for its “spectacular” appeal (Welcome to the Desert of the Real, 11). The artistic works of Hirst, Eric Fischl, Sam Taylor-Johnson, and Gerhard Richter, among others, are considered in this chapter. The debates around the relevance of art to terror are also explored through 9/11 photography, particularly the image of the Falling Man and Thomas Hoepker’s controversial photograph of Americans apparently relaxing in the sun with the smoking Twin Towers in the background. Finally, the chapter considers the links between contemporary terror attacks and performance art. For example, the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in the UK, and Islamic State beheading videos are all discussed as examples of orchestrated spectacle, and the, sometimes blurry, line between art and terror is debated with reference to 9/11 literature.
